World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place (such as a forest, mountain, lake, island, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that is listed by UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance.[1] The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 states' parties[2] which are elected by their General Assembly.[3] The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. Under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,[4] which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. Since then, 190 states parties have ratified the Convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. History[edit] Convention and background[edit]

The World’s First Eyewitness?I’ve written about the first photograph of a human being, here is another old photograph that has historical significance in an obscure way. The fine gentleman above is Conrad Heyer, this picture was taken circa 1852. He was approximately 103 when photographed, having been born in 1749. He was reportedly the first white child born in Waldoboro, Maine, then a German immigrant community. He served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, crossing the Delaware with him and fighting in other major battles.

Department for International DevelopmentThe Department for International Development (DFID) is a United Kingdom government department with a Cabinet Minister in charge. It was separated from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997. The goal of the department is "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". The current Secretary of State for International Development is Justine Greening.President Nixon: The moving speech that would have delivered if Apollo 11 astronauts could not returnBy James Nye Published: 04:22 GMT, 26 August 2012 | Updated: 13:00 GMT, 26 August 2012 Amid the triumphant success of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's successful moon-walk in July 1969, NASA and President Richard Nixon's White House breathed a heavy sigh of relief that he didn't have to deliver a speech to the nation entitled 'In Event of Moon Disaster'. The speech and a memo were prepared in the event that the two Apollo 11 astronauts did not manage to reconnect with their command module piloted by Michael Collins and could not return safely home to Earth. The memo laid out a list of instructions for President Nixon, among which was the tragic task of calling the 'widows-to-be' to express condolences and then to deliver a moving and thoughtful speech to the United States and ultimately the watching world.

1311: 2014The comic includes many predictions from the 1800s and early 1900s. Many of them are for the twenty-first century in general, and only three specifically mention 2014 (two of them as in "a century from now"). Just a note that the PNG file for this comic is (or was initially) actually a TIFF file with a PNG extension. 108.162.236.19 05:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

East TimorEast Timor i/ˌiːst ˈtiːmɔr/ or Timor-Leste /tiˈmɔr ˈlɛʃteɪ/, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste,[6] is a country in Southeast Asia.[7] It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor. The country's size is about 15,410 km2 (5,400 sq mi).[8] East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until Portugal's decolonisation of the country. In late 1975, East Timor declared its independence but later that year was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year.

Year 2000 problemThe (French) sign reads "3 January 1900" instead of "3 January 2000" The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K) was a problem for both digital (computer-related) and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits. In 1997, The British Standards Institute (BSI) developed a standard, DISC PD2000-1,[1] which defines "Year 2000 Conformity requirements" as four rules: No valid date will cause any interruption in operations.Calculation of durations between, or the sequence of, pairs of dates will be correct whether any dates are in different centuries.In all interfaces and in all storage, the century must be unambiguous, either specified, or calculable by algorithmYear 2000 must be recognized as a leap year It identifies two problems that may exist in many computer programs. Background[edit]

From Defense to Desperation, Why There Is a Hidden World of Underground CitiesDerinkuyu Underground City in Cappadocia, Turkey (photograph by Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia) The history of underground cities is a complex and meandering one, ranging from the Ancient Era in the Middle East and Europe to those sunk during the height of Cold War paranoia, such as the bunker complexes of Cheyenne Mountain or Beijing's Underground City. There are also more recent underground cities, some of which are simply underground shopping centers or networks of tunneled roads, like those in Vancouver and Tokyo, as well as others which will begin to be built only in the future, due to the constraints of small islands and the opportunities for vast wealth, which are being considered in Singapore and in Hong Kong. Now, we're not talking about mole people (or even their modern namesakes).

Green Climate FundThe Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC founded as a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world, in order to assist the developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. The GCF is based in the new Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea. It is governed by a Board of 24 members and initially supported by an Interim Secretariat. ‘The Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows’.[1] It is intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion a year by 2020. This is not an official figure for the size of the Fund itself, however.